Noise Certification of UAS through Rules of Particular Applicability

When an applicant presents an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or drone to the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for noise type certification, the FAA reviews the aircraft’s design and flight characteristics, and then determines if the current noise testing procedures and requirements in United States Code Title 14 part 36 apply to the presented UAS. For UAS designs that cannot use part 36 directly, the FAA has used rules of particular applicability (RPA) as an interim approach to noise certification before a generally applicable noise standard is developed. In this approach, the FAA modifies and tailors the noise testing procedures, requirements, and limits in part 36 to the design and flight characteristics of the UAS. To date, the FAA has developed RPAs for seven UAS models. This paper provides an overview of the FAA’s noise certification approach for UAS and discusses topics such as reference testing conditions, acoustic adjustments, and noise limits.